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The Unfixed State of Unfixed Land

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  • Nikita Sud

Abstract

Land is unfixed. Qualitative research in India shows humans physically reconfiguring, legally redefining, politically relabelling and discursively re‐imagining land in growth‐ and investment‐led policies. The state is a key actor in the material and conceptual unfixing of land, and its re‐fixing to emerging developmental imaginations. But land is not just a territorial container for the implementation of policy. Rather, it routinely stretches the boundaries of state authority. In the fieldwork on which this article is based, unfixed, multi‐dimensional land emerges as contested access, social and political territory making, possession that goes beyond the legality of property, and more. As unfixed land extends beyond the boundaries and authority of the state, the state too is stretched in projects of land's unfixing and re‐fixing. This state is revealed as porous, and with a criss‐crossing of social relationships that draw out its institutional bounds into a world of moonlighting officials, revolving doors, and shadowy actors and transactions over unfixed land. The result of this co‐productive interaction is the unfixed state of unfixed land.

Suggested Citation

  • Nikita Sud, 2020. "The Unfixed State of Unfixed Land," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 51(5), pages 1175-1198, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:devchg:v:51:y:2020:i:5:p:1175-1198
    DOI: 10.1111/dech.12553
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Tomalin, Emma & Dyer, Caroline & Choksi, Archana, 2024. "The doublespeak of ‘leave no one behind’: Implications for religious inequality in Hindu and Muslim pastoralist communities in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    2. Choudhury, Pranab R. & Ghosh, Ranjan K. & Sindhi, Sumita, 2020. "Covid-19 Crisis, Pandemic Resilience and Linkages to Land: An Exposition," IIMA Working Papers WP 2020-05-01, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Research and Publication Department.

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